The goal of Lucas Tousart (here in the fight with Stéphanois Miguel Trauco) was refused by the VAR for an involuntary hand. – JEFF PACHOUD / AFP
At Parc OL,
The recipe is widely proven. Mix the words OL and referee, add a pinch of VAR and a twist of Jean-Michel Aulas, and you get all the ingredients for a guaranteed controversy. Rival supporters, especially from Saint-Etienne and Marseille, have been shouting this over the rooftops for years, sometimes with a slight dose of bad faith: OL would be favored by arbitration in Ligue 1 … So much so that the expression ” penalty for Lyon ”has become a real Internet meme and a hashtag that is still very popular.
Put on a green Schneider jersey that you are not confused with the referee 🤬🤬 #OLASSE pic.twitter.com/gBJQBicnSL
– Stan Hardy (@Carbonestan) March 1, 2020
A little more than a week after the words of the side Messin Fabien Centonze describing the Olympique Lyonnais of team “very average without penalty”, the club of the president Aulas was again the subject of litigious arbitral decisions during
of the derby won against AS Saint-Etienne (2-0). The only difference – but significant – the men of Rudi Garcia were this time in the shoes of the victims.
A yellow card for simulation after an offside
It must be said that the Gones were not varnished on this point this Sunday. It all started in the 63rd minute with a goal denied to Lucas Tousart by the VAR. Initially believing in an offside, referee Frank Schneider finally invalidated the goal, after recourse to video arbitration, for an involuntary hand from the middle of Lyon.
Almost in continuity, Moussa Dembélé, launched into the depths, seemed hooked by Jessy Moulin at the entrance to the surface. But curiously, the man in black (in orange this Sunday) signaled a very slight offside, while at the same time sending a yellow card to the Rhone center for simulation!
In 30 seconds, goal denied for Tousart (curious, he couldn’t cut his arm), then Moulin’s fault (but yellow card for Dembélé for simulation?) And finally the referee whistles … offside (he was not offside) 🤔 #TeamOL #OLASSE
– Café du Commerce OL (@CafeCommerceOL) March 1, 2020
For OL, the coup de grace then came with the second goal rejected by the VAR 10 minutes from time. If Karl Toko Ekambi deceived Jessy Moulin well, the referee whistled for an offside against Dembélé, who was not in play but was between the goalkeeper and the ball at the time of striking .
The referee qualified as “twelfth man from Saint-Etienne”
Again, no real arbitration scandal but a new decision subject to interpretation and which for the third time in a row turned in the same direction. Unsurprisingly, the Lyonnais supporters were unleashed on social networks against the VAR and especially against the referee, qualified by the most polite of “twelfth man from Saint-Etienne” – we pass you the names of birds used by a good part of between them.
Fortunately for the Gones, despite all these unfavorable decisions, Frank Schneider had no choice but to crack down on a foul by Kolodziejczak after the extra time. Race result: “penalty for Lyon”, converted from a Panenka by Dembélé. It was less one but the tradition was respected…